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Monthly Archives: May 2012
Crow Tribe of Indians – Staff Attorney Job Posting
STAFF ATTORNEY: Crow Tribe of Indians, Office of Legal Counsel.
Full-time in-house attorney, Crow Agency, MT. 3+ years experience preferred. Candidates must be admitted to practice law on the Crow Reservation and in the State of Montana or be willing and able to obtain admission through the next available bar examination(s). Candidates should have strong research and writing skills and respect for and familiarity with Native American and Crow tribal law, culture, and history. General and flexible practice areas include Indian gaming and various tribal governmental legal issues. Salary DOE. Position open until filled. Crow Tribal and Native American preference apply. Please submit cover letter, resume, writing sample, and references to: Office of Legal Counsel, Crow Tribe, ATTN: Heather Whitemanrunshim, P.O. Box 340, Crow Agency, MT 59022, or email heatherw@crownations.net. All applications confidential.
Crow Tribe of Indians – Child Protection Attorney Job Posting
CHILD PROTECTION ATTORNEY: Crow Tribe of Indians, Office of Legal Counsel
Full-time in-house attorney in the area of child protection law, Crow Agency, MT. Experience preferred. Candidates must be admitted to practice law on the Crow Reservation and in the State of Montana or be willing and able to obtain admission through the next available bar examination(s). Candidates should have strong research and writing skills, respect for and familiarity with Native American and Crow tribal law, culture, and history, and working knowledge of child protection law and practice and the Indian Child Welfare Act. Must be an aggressive advocate, with time management skills and ability to maintain calendars in multiple courts. Day to day practice includes interaction with social workers from Tribal, State, and Federal jurisdictions, as well as contact with the community. Job duties include preparation and presentation at the Tribal level of all filings related to child protection issues; representation of the Tribal interest in state dependency cases and addressing sovereignty issues relating to ICWA. Position also entails regular involvement with law enforcement and prosecution. Salary DOE. Position open until filled. Crow Tribal and Native American preference apply. Please submit cover letter, resume, writing sample, and references to: Office of Legal Counsel, Crow Tribe, ATTN: Heather Whitemanrunshim, P.O. Box 340, Crow Agency, MT 59022, or email heatherw@crownations.net. All applications confidential.
Arizona Lawyers Among Those Who Advocate on Judicial Vacancies
AZ Attorney blog, May 8, 2012
Yesterday, approximately 150 lawyers and other legal leaders traveled to Washington DC to speak on the need to fill judicial vacancies. Some Arizona lawyers participated in the event on Capitol Hill and at the White House.
As the BLT Blog reported: [etc]
And here is a release we received regarding the local attorneys and their trip East:
Arizona Community Leaders, Legal Experts and Advocates to Meet with White House On Judicial Vacancy Crisis
WASHINGTON, DC – Four Arizona community leaders, advocates and legal experts will travel to the nation’s capital on Monday, May 7, to meet with White House officials about the vacancy crisis in America’s federal courts. Nationwide, one in nine federal judgeships are vacant. Nearly one out of every ten federal judgeships remains vacant, and 250 million Americans live in a community with a courtroom vacancy.
Arizona’s courts are reeling from two judicial emergencies while Senators McCain and Kyl refuse to allow a hearing on nominee Rosemary Márquez, a former Pima County Public Defender and former assistant federal public defender.
Even worse, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which serves the entire West, has three nominees who have been approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee and are waiting for a floor vote – Paul Watford, Andrew David Hurwitz, and Jacqueline Nguyen.
Local invitees to the White House meeting include:
- Lou Hollingsworth, Partner, Hollingsworth Kelly
- Stan Lubin, Member, American Constitution Society Judicial Nominations Task Force
- Nick Enoch, Member, American Constitution Society Judicial Nominations Task Force
- Patty Ferguson, National President, National Native American Bar Association
They will join approximately 150 individuals from 27 states in a day of discussions with White House staff. A deal between Senate Republicans and Democrats to allow judicial nominations to proceed in the Senate expires May 7th, and the advocates are urging the Senate to hold final up-or-down votes on all pending nominees.
After the White House meeting, participants will visit the offices of Senators McCain and Kyl to urge them to work to end the delays that have plagued the Senate confirmation process since the beginning of the Obama presidency.
Oklahomans Urge Action on Federal Judicial Nominees
Political and government coverage from NewsOK Posted by Chris Casteel on May 7, 2012M at 3:44 pm
http://blog.newsok.com/politics/2012/05/07/oklahomans-urge-action-on-federal-judicial-nominees/
Three prominent Oklahomans visited the White House and Capitol Hill on Monday to urge Senate confirmation of federal judicial nominees. The process of approving judges to the federal bench often slows in the months leading up to a presidential election as lawmakers from the party out of power sometimes stall action in hopes that they’ll win the White House and get a chance to replace the nominees with their own.
Former U.S. Attorney Dan Webber, former Seminole Nation Chief Enoch Kelly Haney and Jeremy Aliason, executive director of the National Native American Bar Association, went first to the White House to meet with Attorney General Eric Holder and White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler about the vacancy rate.
They then went to Capitol Hill to meet with representatives from the offices of Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Muskogee, and Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa.
The Oklahoma senators have cleared two nominees from the state for a hearing: Robert E. Bacharach, a federal magistrate judge in Oklahoma City who has been nominated for a seat on the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and John E. Dowdell, a Tulsa attorney who has been nominated for a U.S. district judgeship in Tulsa.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on Wednesday that includes a look at Bacharach and Dowdell.
Webber said the Oklahomans asked that the senators be pro-active in pushing for full Senate action on the Oklahoma nominees if they are approved by the committee.
Webber said Haney also advocated at the White House for more Native American nominees for positions around the country.
NARF Joins with Other National Organizations to Call for End to Judicial Vacancy Crisis
Tribal Law Updates, May 8, 2012
Yesterday the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) joined with 28 other national organizations to call for an immediate end to the persistent and destructive obstruction of judicial nominees in the United States Senate. The joint statement released by NARF and others reads as follows:
Regardless of where you live or what issues you care about, all Americans deserve a judiciary that works for them. Today’s White House briefing with community leaders, legal experts and advocates for an effective judiciary is an unequivocal statement about that priority.
Recent cases demonstrate that no matter the issue – health care, immigration, marriage equality, workers’ rights, employment discrimination, environmental regulation, privacy, and ethics – the courts will continue to play an increasingly important role in the lives of hardworking Americans. But the courts can’t function without judges. Unprecedented obstruction by a minority in the Senate has left the nation with 96 current and future vacancies on the federal courts, leading to a substantial backlog of cases that undermines our system of justice and makes it impossible for most Americans to have their case heard in a timely manner.
It’s troubling to realize that, more than four months into 2012, the Senate has voted only on nominees who were pending on the Senate floor last year and eligible for a confirmation vote in 2011. Today, in fact, marks the first time this year that the Senate is scheduled to vote on nominees who were not pending in 2011.
This vacancy crisis, which has left 250 million Americans living in communities with unstaffed federal courtrooms, must end, and the confirmation process must not be allowed to be slowed even further by election-year politics. We believe that every nominee submitted by the President this year deserves a yes-or-no vote confirmation vote. Together, we will continue to fight for a fair judiciary and stand with the American people to ensure they have timely access qualified judges to hear their disputes and have their day in court.
Signed,
- Alliance for Justice
- American Association for Justice
- American Constitution Society for Law and Policy
- American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO)
- Asian American Justice Center, member of the Asian American Center for Advancing Justice
- Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law
- Center for American Progress
- Communication Workers of America (CWA)
- Compassion & Choices
- Constitutional Accountability Center
- Defenders of Wildlife
- Hispanics for a Fair Judiciary
- Hispanic National Bar Association
- Human Rights Campaign
- The Justice at Stake Campaign
- Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights
- League of United Latin American Citizens
- NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund, Inc.
- National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA)
- National Bar Association
- National Congress of American Indians
- National Council of Jewish Women
- National Employment Lawyers Association (NELA)
- National Partnership for Women & Families
- National Women’s Law Center
- Native American Rights Fund
- People For the American Way
- Union for Reformed Judaism
Law Student Job Posting
Legal Intern
Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Odanah, WI)
| Position Type: | Law Clerk, Legal Intern |
| Practice Area(s): | Indian/Native American |
| Geographic Preference(s): | Midwest (KY, WV, OH, IN, MI, IL, MO, IA, MN, WI) |
| Description: | Seeking Treaty Rights and Civil Rights Interns. Please see attached. |
| Desired Class Level: | 1L, 2L, 3L |
| Posting Date: | April 20, 2012 |
| Expiration Date: | May 20, 2012 |
| Contact: | Erick Arnold, |
| Resume Receipt: | E-mail, Other (see below) |
| Default email for resumes.: | attorney@badriver-nsn.gov |
| How to Apply: | Please forward resume, cover letter, writing sample and references. |
| Additional Documents: | Cover Letter, Writing Sample, Other Documents |
| ID: | 21149 |
Tempe Attorney Howard Shanker speaking in Natural Resources Law Seminar
Tempe Attorney Howard Shanker, who represented the Navajo Nation and others in litigation opposing the use of reclaimed wastewater for snowmaking on the San Francisco Peaks, will be speaking to Joe Feller’s Natural Resources Law Field Seminar on Thursday, May 10, at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at 2:00 p.m. in Room 110. ILP Faculty, staff, students and alum are all invited to attend.
Job Posting – DBA Program Staff Attorney
DBA Program Staff Attorney
DNA-People’s Legal Services, Inc. is now seeking applications for a full-time staff attorney position, in support of the Diné Bí ts’íís báá Ah’jiteí (DBA) Program medical-legal partnership. Diné Bí ts’íís báá Ah’jiteí is Navajo for “Program for the Health of the People”. Known as DBA, the program provides free legal services to low-income Native American patients at Indian Health Service (IHS) facilities on the Navajo Nation.
DNA People’s Legal Services is a non-profit legal aid organization founded on the Navajo Nation in 1967. DNA is an acronym for Dinébe’iiná Náhiilna be Agha’diit’ahii, a Navajo phrase that means “attorneys who work for the revitalization of the people.” We have ten office locations throughout the Four Corners region. DNA focuses its services on low-income individuals, regardless of race or ethnicity, but our assistance reaches members of seven tribes — the Hualapai, Havasupai, Kaibab Paiute, Hopi, San Juan Southern Paiute, Jicarilla Apache, and the Navajo Nation. DNA-People’s Legal Services partnered with the Navajo Area Indian Health Service to create the DBA Program in 2009.
Job Description
The DBA Program staff attorney will provide direct legal services to low-income patients and family members at one or more health care facilities on the Navajo Nation. Areas of legal advocacy will include public benefits, housing, special education, domestic violence, elder law, family law, and consumer law. The staff attorney will be responsible for periodic trainings and presentations at medical facilities, as well as regular consultation with medical providers. The staff attorney will work primarily from an office of DNA-People’s Legal Services. The location for this job position is expected to be Tuba City, Arizona. The position is open immediately.
Job Requirements
- Demonstrated commitment to public service;
- Excellent communication skills;
- Potential for creativity and innovation;
- Strong writing and analytical skills;
- Cross-cultural experience;
- Ability to travel through the surrounding region;
- Arizona bar membership, eligibility to waive into the Arizona bar, or ability to sit for the next Arizona bar exam;
- Navajo Nation bar membership or eligibility to take the next Navajo bar exam;
- Priority will be given to applicants who can start immediately.
Salary and Benefits
Salary is based on experience and will conform to DNA’s salary scale for legal aid attorneys. Generous benefit package included. Position is funded under a grant and will continue as funds are available.
Applications should include a cover letter, resume, writing sample (5 pages or less), and list of three references. Please send application materials by e-mail to:
Matt VanWormer, Project Director
Diné Bí ts’íí báá Ah’jiteí (DBA) Program
DNA – People’s Legal Services, Inc.
P.O. Box 987; Shiprock, NM; 87420
Phone: (505) 368-3211; Fax: (505) 368-3212
* * *
DNA is an equal opportunity/ affirmative action employer. Preference is given to qualified Navajo and other Native American applicants.